1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of hand tools. More particularly, it pertains to tools for undertaking manipulative operations spaced apart from the operator's hands, including picking up and moving objects from one place to another, with movable, pickup fingers. These tools are generally known as “reachers” or “grabbers.” This invention pertains to such tools having the novel property of infinitely variable position limiting of the moveable fingers and of having the ability of varying the plane of operation of the fingers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are situations where items are not within reach and physical barriers, such as limbs of trees, drain grates, furniture and the like, prevent one from grasping and/or retrieving or moving certain items. In these situations one often depends upon tools with grasping actions, spaced apart from the handle, to reach through the physical barriers. Such tools come in a variety of sizes, lengths, and internal mechanisms. As our daily lives become more complex with crowded living conditions and an aging population, these tools take on a more meaningful existence.
Especially with the older generation, reaching and retrieving out-of-reach items is becoming more important. In some instances, persons can use grabbers to retrieve bottles from high shelves, or crowded items from heavily stocked cabinets, however, many people do not have long term grasping power in their hands to retain a grip sufficient to grasp the item and continue to hold it while moving it from one place to another. Such a lack of gripping power usually results in the item being dropped as it is moved.
Reachers and grabbers remedy this situation. Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 3,527,492 discloses such a tool for use in picking up trash or other items, comprising an elongated shaft having a handle at one end, with a squeezable trigger, and a pair of spring-operated, spaced-apart, pick-up fingers located at the opposite end of the shaft.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,839 discloses a somewhat similar tool containing a shoe horn and an abutment attached to a moveable portion at the lower end of the shaft, for aiding a person in putting on and taking off their shoes. In both of these devices, however, the pressure exerted against the object to be captured by the tool comes directly from the continuing pressure of the operator's hand squeezing the trigger.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,957 concerns a pickup tool with a positional locking device which includes an arm outwardly-extending from the handle and containing spaced-apart notches to which a pin may be locked to hold the pickup fingers in one of two or three separate locking positions. This tool, as well as the other tools mentioned herein, is confined to having the spaced-apart, pickup fingers aligned along an axis transverse to the plane of the handle.
A shortcoming in the prior art is the fact that all available pickup tools, such as reachers and grabbers, have a fixed axis along which the pickup fingers operate. If someone wishes to have the fingers travel along a path different from the path transverse to the plane of the handle, they must rotate the handle to a different orientation. Some persons do not have the dexterity to do this or do not have much strength in their hands. These people are adversely affected by such a frozen design in the pickup tool. A pickup tool with an infinitely variable pickup finger positioning ability, and/or a pickup tool with the ability to rotate the plane of the moveable fingers to a different angle, is currently not available.